As the electronic industry blooms, various electronic devices are continuously developed and introduced in our life. In order to input a control instruction to control the electronic devices or transmit data between the electronic devices, most electronic devices are equipped with a plurality of connectors installed on a motherboard. Signals transmitted and received by various connectors are encoded/decoded by at least one integrated circuit (IC) installed on a motherboard. For example, a RJ-45 network connector is electrically coupled to a motherboard of an electronic device, and an external network circuit is connected for receiving external network signals. After the network connector receives a network signal, the network signal is transmitted to the motherboard, and after a network integrated circuit installed on the motherboard is used for decoding the network signal, a corresponding component such as a central processing unit (CPU) installed on the motherboard is used for operations. On the other hand, if the motherboard needs to transmit a network signal to the outside through the network connector, the network signal is transmitted to the network integrated circuit and encoded first, and then the encoded network signal is transmitted to the outside through the network connector.
However, the installed connectors occupy much space on the motherboard, so that the installation of one or more network integrated circuits on the motherboard will waste much precious installation space on the motherboard. In a process of developing electronic devices, miniaturization is a mainstream design factor of the electronic devices, and it is an important subject for related designers and manufacturers to save spaces on the motherboard.
Obviously, a novel connector capable of encoding/decoding network signals without installing any additional network integrated circuits required to overcome the problems of the prior art.